Tempo time and healthy junk food

For one, this is the day of the week that I get fed up with spending time out on the road in the early morning instead of being at home. Running on the treadmill means that I can stick around for the chaos of our familial morning routine.

I do wake up before everyone else and get going, however, because even though the boys are old enough to mind themselves for a bit, things can still go awry pretty quickly.

Charlie can vouch for that.

Anyway, that is one thing that I cannot understand about so many mother runner/blogger types. I don’t know how they manage to get in like 18 miles on their treadmills while their little ones run amok. TV?

But back to the mill. I snuck in a pretty decent 9-miler while listening to some ‘80’s hits that reminded me of the old days, back before MFP had chest hair. (Fun fact: We went to high school together.)

“The Unforgettable Fire” is a great song for the warm-up or cool-down.

“Under the Milky Way” by The Church is also a great warm-up song. Remember them?

“Bizarre Love Triangle” by New Order was perfect for getting the tempo part of the run going. This was like “our song.” Totally.

And of course “These Days” by R.E.M. is also great for tempo pace as well.

I managed to hold on to 7:30 pace for six straight miles, but the last few miles were a bit of a struggle.

In fact, I went outside afterwards to do some stretching and was inspired to take a rest instead.

I do have to save some energy for the day’s activities which include a trip to Costco with my dog-dressing-up clowns.

I spent the first few pages arguing with this guy in my head. I couldn’t believe Freeman was suggesting that a McDonald’s smoothie was healthier than one juiced freshly from organic fruits and vegetables. Aghast might be the correct emotion I felt while reading his seemingly twisted idea that it might be a better idea to make our junk food “less bad” than to try to encourage the masses to eat more whole foods.

Here are two interesting points, however:

Lenard Lesser, a physician and an obesity researcher at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute, says…that the obesity gap predates the fast-food industry and the dietary dominance of processed food. ‘The difference in obesity rates in low- and high-income groups was evident as far back as we have data, at least back through the 1960s.’ One reason, some researchers have argued, is that after having had to worry, over countless generations, about getting enough food, poorer segments of society had little cultural bias against overindulging in food, or putting on excess pounds, as industrialization raised incomes and made rich food cheaply available. (source)

Trim, affluent Americans of course have a right to view dietary questions from their own perspective—that is, in terms of what they need to eat in order to add perhaps a few months onto the already healthy course of their lives. The pernicious sleight of hand is in willfully confusing what might benefit them—small, elite minority that they are—with what would help most of society. (source)

I see some validity in the argument that trying to get those whose budgets and schedules only allow for fast food to spend their entire paychecks on organic fruits and vegetables that they might have to travel miles across town to obtain, might be an uphill battle. And perhaps it is elitist to even suggest such a thing. (That’s why I really liked this TED talk.)

But I also almost feel like he is sort of giving up on an entire segment of society at the same time.

So off I go to find some “healthy” processed foods to put into my cart at Costco today. Wish me luck…